Coconut Bacon and Coco-BLT (BMT) + Baconish cookbook review

Rob and I have been plowing through our tomato stash. Mostly me, since Rob doesn’t like them raw. Slow and steady it built up, as we waited for the green tomatoes to ripen on our windowsill. We had to pick them early, otherwise the rodents would take off with them. I blame the squirrels. Or maybe it is raccoons? I thought there were telltale teeth marks but my mom assured me the culprit (in that case) were earwigs. I know earwigs cannot lift a tomato on top of the fence, so I have multiple foes. I am surprised any rodent could lift them because some of the tomatoes are huge. One tomato I found on the plant that was turning red was 540g! Over a pound!

My friend Renee at Leafy Cauldron has had wild success with her urban garden. Look at just a small fraction of her haul. She gave me some to try and they were delicious. 🙂

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OK we're reaching a point where there are too many #tomatoes for even me to handle 🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅 #vegan

A post shared by Renee Anne McKenzie (@my_littleversailles) on Aug 10, 2016 at 7:11am PDT

With my new appreciation for sandwiches and an abundant tomato haul, what could be more classic than a vegan BLT? Summer ripe tomatoes are heavenly and a perfect match for coconut bacon, though.

I am no stranger to coconut bacon (or eggplant bacon) and let’s be honest, they are nothing like “real” bacon.  I was never one to adore bacon (and not the super crispy bacon, at that) but I was kind of excited to see what was in store in the new cookbook Baconish written by Leinana from the blog Vegan Good Things. We both discovered coconut bacon the same way: a trip to Montreal’s Aux Vivres restaurant.

The first part of the cookbook has recipes for all sorts of plant-based bacon: tofu, tempeh, seitan, King Trumpet mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, eggplant, carrot, roasted chickpeas and TVP for bacon bits. Each one is slightly different, some with smoked paprika, some with cumin, some with smoked salt, some without any of those ingredients, too.

The rest of the book features these ingredients (or store-bought varieties) in other recipes. A german potato salad entices me as well as the fried green tomato BLT (perfect for all those unripe tomatoes). The cauliflower bacon gratin looks perfect for a cold winter night and I am curious about the tofu bacon carbonara that is also eggless. The mains are a bit heavy on pasta creations, but I suppose that is the nature of bacon. The desserts truly shine in creativity with options like Miss Piggy Strawberry Ice with Chocolate Covered Bacon and Maple Pecan Sundaes with Coconut Bacon.

I have only made the coconut bacon with the coco BLT so far, and it did not disappoint. Simple with only a few ingredients, the coconut bacon adds a fun perk to salads and lovely in the sandwich. Mine didn’t crisp up too much and as the recipe mentions, watch carefully because the edges will start to burn quickly. I ate my sandwich with mizuna, hence Rob christened this a BMT! A bacon-mizuna-tomato sandwich.

 

Recipes from Baconish spotted elsewhere:

Bacon pancake dippers

Baconish granola

Brussels sprouts with shallots and tofu bacon

Butternut squash carbonara with bacon and sage

Chocolate-peanut bacon truffles

Loaded potato soup with bacon

Pasta with leeks and bacon

Seitan bacon

Tempeh bacon

Vegan quiche Lorraine

Coconut Bacon

From Baconish © 2016 by Leinana Two Moons. Used with permission from Vegan Heritage Press

Author’s note:  This recipe will make any vegan-bacon skeptic a true believer. It is my absolute favorite bacon to use for the best BLTs ever. 

3 tablespoons tamari

1 tablespoon liquid smoke

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon maple syrup

3 cups unsweetened large-flake coconut

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Whisk the tamari, liquid smoke, water, and maple

syrup together in a large bowl. Stir in the coconut and mix well to ensure that the flakes are evenly coated.

2. Spread the coconut in an even layer on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake 10 minutes, then stir. Bake another 8 minutes, keeping a very close ey

e on the coconut in the last few minutes. The coconut will go from almost done to completely burned very quickly. Remove from the oven when the coconut flakes on the outer edges of the pan are becoming a deep, dark brown, but not black.

3. Place the baking sheet on a cooling rack. The coconut will continue to crisp as it

cools. Coconut bacon will keep 1 to 2 weeks in an airtight plastic container, but will be

come less crisp the longer you store it.

Makes 2 1/2 cups

The Famous Coconut BLT

From Baconish © 2016 by Leinana Two Moons. Used with permission from Vegan Heritage Press

 

Author’s note: My absolute favorite bacon to use for the best BLTs ever. Because Coconut Bacon will become less crisp the longer you store it, I recommend making it just ahead of preparing your sandwiches.

8 slices sandwich bread

Vegan mayonnaise

2 cups Coconut Bacon

1 large ripe tomato, sliced

Lettuce leaves, washed and patted dry (Janet’s note: to make this a BMT: use mizuna!)

1. Spread each slice of bread with a generous amount of mayonnaise. Top the

mayonnaise with about 1/2 cup of the Coconut Bacon per sandwich, followed by slices of tomato and lettuce leaves. Top each sandwich with the remaining bread slices. Cut each sandwich with a serrated bread knife and serve immediately.

Makes 4 sandwiches.